RetrospectivesAgile Ottawa Meetup Oct 2015

Foundations of Great Retrospectives

SafetyRetros examine ‘what could have gone better’

Emotions and defensiveness can come into play

Failures happen in complex environments (like your organization)

It is easy to look back and find causes - but not vice versa

Most failures are a result of unpredictable interactions in a complex adaptive system

The whole team, but not the manager

Foundations of Great RetrospectivesSafety - The Blameless Post-Mortem

What actions were taken over time?For each contributor

What effects were observed?Expected results?Assumptions made?Understanding of events as they occurred?Without fear of punishment

Foundations of Great RetrospectivesHave an agenda

Have a goal

What has happened recently? Do we want to reduce build failures?

Plan your activities

Know how much time you are going to use for each step

Set the stage - 6 min

Gather data - 40 min

...

Foundations of Great RetrospectivesUnderstanding facilitationManage the process, not the content

Ask for permission to interrupt - ‘time check, we have another minute’

Introduce activities, monitor the activity, then debrief

Manage the meeting dynamics

Parking tangential conversation

Stopping the blame game, encourage ‘I’ language

‘You missed the release date’ vs ‘I’m upset the date was missed’

Keep track of time

Foundations of Great RetrospectivesFacilitation skills

Active listening

Positive attitude

Professional behaviour

Competent with activities and tools

Well prepared, well organized

Retrospective Structure

1.Set the stage2.Gather data3.Generate insights4.Decide what to

do5.Close the

retrospective

Set the stageGreet people as they come inWelcome

Thanks for the time

State the goal

Remind people of the meeting length

Ask everyone to say somethingPsychologically, people are more engaged and willing to participate

Review the agenda

Set the stageUse a working agreement created by the team

No cell phones

No laptops

Everyone participates

Blameless retrospective ...

Have an agreement before you encounter conflictHow do we solve our problems?

Gather dataQuantitative Data

Velocity

Milestones

Defect counts …

Qualitative DataHow was the iteration?

What events made you mad, sad, glad?

Rate our use of team values

Generate insightsWhy?

What helped us succeed?What patterns do we see?Investigate deficienciesExample ActivitiesBrainstorming, 5 whys, force field analysis

Decide what to doWe have some possible improvements - pick 1 or 2

A long list is overwhelming

Treat them as experiments

Take ActionWho is going to do what, by when?

Assigning it to the team means it’s someone else’s job

Focus on what the team can actually do

Not on what another team ‘should’ be doing

Close the retrospectiveBe Decisive

‘OK, finishing the retrospective ...’

Make sure results are recordedQuickly review outcomes and commitmentsOccasionally review prior commitmentsOccasionally retro the retrospective

How engaged are we?

Do we need to change the activities?

Is it producing valuable results?

Change the activity for each step occasionallyKeep energy and engagement upApply different techniques for different problemsModify the steps or use a new process

When your retrospectives are mature

Tip: Change your Activities

Reference and ResourcesAgile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great: https://pragprog.com/book/dlret/agile-retrospectives

Presentation: Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8w-dFrmovQ

Fifty Quick Ideas To Improve Your Retrospectives: https://leanpub.com/50quickretrospectives

Blameless PostMortems and a Just Culture: https://codeascraft.com/2012/05/22/blameless-postmortems/

Retrospective Wiki: http://retrospectivewiki.org/index.php?title=Main_Page